One Wild Ride: Yukon to Yellowstone

Premieres Sunday, March 14, 8 p.m. ET

Below:

National Geographic Ultimate Explorer correspondent Nick Baker takes a 5,000-mile road trip from the northernmost reaches of the Yukon to Yellowstone National Park, exploring one of the greatest mountain ecosystems in the world. Baker explores this wilderness in the wake of an ambitious plan to link the parks and reserves of the northern Rockies.

National Geographic Ultimate Explorer correspondent Nick Baker takes a remarkable 5,000-mile road trip along one of the greatest mountain ecosystems in the world — the northern Rockies. Beginning in the northernmost reaches of the Yukon and ending in breathtaking parklands of Yellowstone, Baker explores the rich natural history of the region in the wake of an ambitious plan called the Y2Y Conservation Initiative. The plan aims to link the great national parks and reserves of the northern Rockies, creating a network of preserved habitats through which wildlife can roam freely.

Along the way, Baker joins the people who are helping to make the Y2Y a reality. In Canada’s Banff National Park, Baker accompanies Human-Wildlife Conflict Specialist Glen Peers as he works to maintain the careful balance between the needs of humans and animals living in and around the park. In northwest Montana, Baker lends a hand as Grizzly Bear Management Specialist Tim Manley relocates a problematic female grizzly bear that was caught feeding on the property of area residents. And in Yellowstone, Baker joins Doug Smith, a leading wildlife biologist whose controversial Yellowstone Wolf Project released imported wolves into park, reestablishing a population that had been extinct in Yellowstone since the 1930s.

Join Baker on this journey across the great northwest as he captures the essence of the area’s half-million square miles of stunning beauty and comes face-to-face with bison, caribou, bears, moose, wolves, and wolverines — animals whose survival may depend on the successful implementation of the Y2Y plan.